Christmas craftyness, etc.

The boys and I have done quite a few crafts lately, we seem to have been hanging around the house alot and I won't let them watch tv all the time (they would probably like too) and they get tired of playing, or start fighting so I think up a craft to do. Anyhow here are a couple that we have done lately...

We made these neat cinamon ornaments to hang on your tree or anywhere you want to smell like cinnamon like your closet, pantry, etc. They were fun to do and only consist of cinnamon and applesause that you mix up, roll out, cut with cookie cutters and then let them dry for about two weeks until they get rock hard (seriously).

Then we painted some new ornaments for our tree. The boys both painted two and I painted one for Rusty our new dog. We had fun and Carter said "Santa is going to see these and go ooohhhh their house looks so nice". I thought that was pretty cute.

A friend's baby shower was a few weeks ago and I also made these two baby quilts for her because she is having twin girls. I had the most fun making them and putting together the fabric. I think I have mentioned before my love for the fabric store.

We are in Christmas decoration mode around here now and got our tree today and hope to get it up soon.

A "hideout"

The boys and I built a really neat fort in their room yesterday. The top picture is from the outside. We put it behind the changing table next to the wall and then added another little card table for entry and to make it bigger.

We then covered the inside with blankets and animals and put some funky lights in there. It is soo cool, I wish I would have had one like that when I was little. A great place to hide and the boys like to just sit in there and have some quiet time (mom likes it too).

Taxi tote..

I finished my first project from my new sewing book. It turned out pretty cute, I think now I need to make some for people for Christmas presents.. It was pretty easy to make and did not take a ton of time.

Lazy Days...

It has been raining like crazy here and I have had a bad cold so needless to say we didn't get out much this past week. One of Carter's favorite things to say is "Mom, I just want to be lazy today". Which means he wants to stay home and watch cartoons, play with Rusty, bake cookies, cuddle up and read books, do his paint with water books, put together puzzles, etc. We had mostly lazy days this week and it was great. Really nice to stay home and not go, go, go. I think my cold is finally mostly over and I am really glad. It is hard to take care of kids and do everything else with no energy. Thank you coffee.. Here is a new picture of Carter and his "best dog friend" Rusty. Today I am taking the boys to see Madagascar 2 so it is a big day - we are venturing out of the house for the first time this week. Ha! Back to real life I guess and that also means I have to go grocery shopping.. no fun.

New sewing book...

I got this new sewing book today and it is fabulous. It is by my favorite fabric designer (and she has a blog too). Anyhow, it is filled with cool, funky projects I can't wait to make. If you love to sew or want to learn I recommend it, the beginning is filled with the basic "learn to sew" instructions and it is just fabulous.

I have already gone to the fabric store (this evening) to get some fabric for my first project in the book, the "taxi hand-bag". A smallish purse, that looks really cute and pretty easy. We shall see..

Halloween

We had a great Halloween.. the boys and I went shopping at Goodwill in early October for costumes and we got a bunch for like $1.99. We got a new "cooler" batman costume and mask, a darth vader mask, buzz lightyear costume, ronald mcdonald costume, etc. Anyhow, Carter had decided right away that he was going to be batman again this year and Gavin changed his mind about 100 times before Halloween. He mostly said he was going to be darth vader but then at the last minute, insisted on being Robin (old costume from last year). So we had batman and robin. They were both really cute and we had a fun time trick-or-treating.

The boys and I had a small Halloween party here at our house with some friends on Friday morning and then Kevin and I also went to an adult party that night (after trick or treating). It was fun and good to catch up with some old friends. As you can see, I dressed up as minnie mouse.

We also attended some good friends' harvest party on Saturday night so we got some good use out of our costumes this year.. Rusty even came along for trick or treating..

New Addition...

So, we decided we didn't have enough going on around here with two kids, and two cats so we got a new puppy!! We did some research about what kinds of dogs are really good with kids and we knew we wanted a medium to small sized dog. We ended up leaning towards a Springer Spaniel and we found one in Silverton about 15 miles from Salem. He is 8 weeks old and after much debate we named him "Rusty". He is soo cute and cudly. Wants to be held all the time right now. We brought him home yesterday, introduced him to a crate (he had been in a kennel with his Dad at the breeder) and he is really taking to it great. Kevin and I went out to dinner last night for our 8 year anniversary, which is actually on Wednesday, and Rusty came along with us crate and all. He stayed in his crate in the car and did great. Last night we brought his crate into our room when we went to bed and he whined for about 5 minutes and then gave up and went to sleep and slept the whole night! I couldn't believe he did so good in his crate the first night. I think it helped that he knew we were right there and could hear us breathing (or snoring) Ha!

The boys are just thrilled. Carter told me last night "I love him soo much Mom" and he flew out of bed this morning when I said he could let Rusty out of the crate to take him potty. Fun stuff! We have been wanting to get the boys a dog for a while and I am glad we decided to go ahead with it. I can tell this is going to be a really fun time.

"Warms"

I made some rice pillows or "warms" as we call them now around here for the boys. They are the neatest thing and I have taken over Gavin's because he doesn't seem to like it much... (I need to make some more) but Carter and I love them.

They are easy to make and then when you are done you heat them up in the microwave for 2 minutes each night before you go to bed and you have this really warm little pillow to cuddle with. They stay warm for 3-4 hours too. Really great for cold feet which I always seem to have. I read on another blog that someone said she was sick with the flu and her "warm" was the only thing that made life worth living.. that cracked me up totally and reminded me of myself. I can totally see myself in that position when I get the flu- I usually get it once a year and I am knocked out for like 5 days (I mean, cannot even get out of bed knocked out).

Anyhow, here are the directions I followed for the litte "warms". Oh, the best part is when you heat them up they totally smell like rice and make your bedroom smell like you are cooking it or something.. Kevin, (again) thinks I am nuts. I have read that you can fill them with other things like corn kernels, etc. but haven't tried that yet. Oh and one other thing is that when you first make them and heat them up they give off quite a bit of steam so they may feel damp when you take them out of the microwave. The more you use them, heat them up and so on that dampness will go away. So.. hello winter and cold toes, we are ready!!

Super easy fall scarf..

I made this cute fall scarf today. It is raining (pouring) here and I am getting ready for fall & winter. Washing all the coats, etc. This scarf is made with the some Anna Maria Horner (my favorite) fabric for the front, a nice cozy flannel from JoAnn's for the back and lined with some extra cozy fleece. It is a really fun & funky print and I love how it turned out. I used this tutorial, here, but I really think most people could do this without one, super easy. I have the urge to make another one too, with some of the fabric I have laying around.

Fall..

We have been enjoying the start of fall here in Salem. We went on a nature walk and collected a bunch of leaves, nuts, sticks and all sorts of fun stuff and then we made this cool collage. Carter had soo much fun doing this and is really proud of it. He signed his name on it and insisted I sign it too because "you helped Mom". But I had to sign it Stormy and not Mom. He is a pretty funny little guy.

Carter is looking forward to his preschool starting on Oct. 14th and Gavin and I will get to spend some quality time together then too which is fun.

We are in the process of building a new deck in our back yard (our last project around here for a long time!!!, says me anyhow). No, I am of course excited to be getting a new deck, just can't wait for it all to be done so we can relax and enjoy it.

Sunriver..

We got back Tuesday evening from a really fun trip to Sunriver. Kevin had an Oregon Restaurant Association meeting over there so Kevin, his dad Dave, my Mom, the boys and I all went over on Sunday morning. We stayed in a really cool house with a fun bunk bed/toy room for the boys and nice rooms for all of us adults. I love Sunriver and could see myself retiring there. It is soo relaxing to me. Anyhow, I got to go to all of the fun stuff, the fancy dinners and the casino night/party night as my mom stayed at the house with the boys. We had a great time. It is fun to actually get out and about as an individual and talk to adults. Not that I don't love my kids and cherish the time I get to spend with them. It is just really nice to get a break once in a while too, helps me to be a better mom...

The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure is on Sunday and I am running.. can't wait. I am now on this kick to beat my time and see if I can do better each time I run a 5k. I am about ready to move on up to a 7k - and eventually up to a half marathon. That would be an ultimate goal for me, we shall see. :)

I love this super cute idea of reading a book to your kiddos and having a special fun snack that coordinates with it. Check this out. I am totally going to have to do this with my boys...

Camping, Garden, etc..

We got back on Friday from another little camping trip - trying to squeeze as many in as we can before the end of summer. The boys love camping now and want to go all the time. We took our bikes this time and we all went on quite a few rides and basically just hung out at the campground, going on walks, hanging around the campfire and all that fun stuff.

Our garden is winding down now, still waiting on those green tomatoes to ripen. We planted carrots this year and I am loving them. The boys love to eat them raw and we have been putting them in salads and making yummy salad rolls.. my favorite.

I am obsessed with this thing called Letterboxing. I am soo excited to do it with the boys. It is like a scavenger hunt type of thing that you can do and I know the boys would LOVE it. Here is a link and all the details. I want to try and start it this fall, before the weather gets too bad. We need to get a stamp and a journal to get started but that is all you need.

Summer Fun..

We have had a really busy summer this year. Lots of fun stuff crammed into the hot days and we have been loving it. We went to the Hillsboro Airshow which was tons of fun, both boys love their airplanes. I was too slow to take any good pictures of the planes but here is one from the Monster Truck ride we went on. I think they maybe even liked that even better than the planes...

We have been spending alot of time in the garden and have beans and zucchini's galore. We have had quite a few cherry tomatoes and little pear tomatoes but the big ones are just hanging there green and ready for a few more days of sunshine. But the beans, my goodness. I can't keep up with picking them let alone figuring out new ways to cook them, etc. We mostly eat them raw the boys love them this way and so do I.

Kevin turned 30 yesterday and last weekend I had a little surprise party for some of his friends & family. It was really fun, even though Kevin had sort of figured out something was up on his way down to the restaurant and wasn't like totally blown over with surprise which is what I wanted but it was fun. The theme was James Bond and we had different food stations from all over the world, martini glasses for the candle holders, really neat and fun.

On Wednesday night Kevin and I went to see Jack Johnson up in St. Helens. The show was excellent and we had a great time. It is an outdoor venue and it was a beautiful night, a few sprinkles here and there but no real rain which was great. We hit a huge traffic jam on the way to the concert though and ended up being an hour and a half late but Jack had not even started when we got there so I was soo relieved.

Also happening this week.. Kevin won a four-wheeler. At Cash-n-Carry where he buys alot of his beverages for work (RockStar) they were having a drawing and he won. So we are now the proud owners of a custom RoskStar mini (holds 210 lbs) 4-wheeler. It is too big for Carter to ride, and a little small for Kevin.. guess that means it is mine for now. :) I was cruising around on it in the backyard and the boys are beyond excited. We will have to scope out a good place to go riding around here and take them out someday soon. After helmets are purchased of course..

Camping..

We got back from our first camping trip of the year yesterday. It was a great trip.. We went to a new (to us) spot called Little Cultus Lake campground. It is about 20 miles from Sunriver in the Deschutes Ntl. Forest. It was just beautiful and had great spots for the kids to swim.



The first night we got there and got all set up only to find that there were TONS of mosquitos. The camp host mentioned to us that the mosquitos were way better in a different part of the campground so we moved everything to a new spot the next morning and it was alot better.

We had a great time swimming, floating in our raft, roasting marshmallows, all the fun camping stuff. There were alot of chipmunks around which the boys loved and there was one that hung around our spot that had one eye poked out. Carter called him "one eyed mater" which has something to do with the movie Cars of course, not sure how the one eye thing figures in. But anyhow he was really cute, here he is...

We camped Sund. - Wed. and had quite a bit of thunder and lightning on Wed afternoon/evening. We kept seeing forest service trucks going up the road past our campground (really, really primitive road, like old logging road, our truck could barely make it up there). Anyhow, the camp host came over later in the evening and told us there were two small fires about 5 miles up the road and that the Forest Service was going to send smoke jumpers up in the morning.. I was like what, in the morning? I didn't know you could just wait when there was a fire... we slept ok, didn't have to high tail it out in the middle of the night or anything. But when we woke up on Thursday the lighting was really really close and it started to rain and even hail at one point so we packed it up and headed for a hotel in Bend. After a shower of course (did I mention, no showers, yikes) we headed to the outlet stores and dinner at the Deschutes Brewery. I think that is Kevin's favorite place on earth. We had a fun time there the next day too, walking around downtown Bend, swimming in the pool, etc. Then we headed for home Friday evening. Good to be back, now it is time to tackle the mountain of laundry..

Chair & Future sewing project...

I finished my sewing table chair. I posted about it a while back; anhow I repainted it "restful rose" and then recovered the seat. So cute. I really like how it turned out.

I think my next big project is going to be this quilt. The pattern is by Anna Maria Horner who designs fabric (LOVE her stuff) and she has this cool blog as well. This looks like quite the project, it might take me 6 months or more as much time as I get to work on it (only like 1 hour a day maybe).. Anyhow, I love the design of this one and can't wait to start. First I need to go fabric shopping.

I recently ran in the Salem Art Fair 5K and got a pretty good time (my best actually for a 5K). I was stoked, to run the whole thing, which is always my goal - no walking allowed - and the time thing made it even better. I have another race coming up in September, the Komen Race for the Cure.

Craft & Gavin's 1st haircut...

We did this really cute and easy craft yesterday. You buy simple white t-shirts, sharpie markers and then rubbing alcohol. You use a plastic cup and put it underneath the shirth and tie around it with a rubber band (bottom up to make a flat surface). Then the boys color that little circle and drop it with rubbing alcohol. I did this part mostly. Anyhow, the colors spread out and make a funky pattern. Then you let it dry for 1 minute or so and mover your cup to another part of the shirt and repeat. They turned out really cute and the boys had alot of fun doing them. Gavin lost interest a little about half way through so I finished his up but Carter loved it and is still talking about it today. He wants to make one for his Dad so we will have to do that. :)

Also yesterday, Gavin got his first haircut!! They chopped off a lot of curls (it was getting really out of control) but he still has plenty and it has to feel much better... Here is the before and after.

Remodeling, etc.

Our siding is all up!! Here are some pictures I took yesterday (we still have to paint). I think it looks soo good. We are still trying to figure out what color we went to paint but I think we have narrowed it down to something in the brown tone family.. We are headed to Sherwin Williams sometime soon to pick for sure. That is such a hard decision, something we will have to live with for years.

The boys have been such great sports with all of the attention we have been putting into the remodeling, they play outside next to us on the grass while we are working and have been really good. I took then to DQ last night for a special treat for being such good boys. Of course I had to try the new Girl Scout thin mint blizzard - not as great as I had hoped. Anyhow, here is Gavin trying to escape down the block when we were working, I just love this picture.

I also made this yummy fruit pizza last week (i think) when we picked berries. I used this recipe from Giada of Everyday Italian. Kevin and I thought it was yummy. The kids could take it or leave it and it didn't all get eaten up but we each had a slice or two..

Garden update..

In a previous post (like 2 weeks ago) I posted a picture from my garden swing. This is the view now. It is really filling in. The huge things right in front of me around the edge are sunflowers. The beans are growing right up the trellises and we have been eating tons and tons of the lettuce - mostly with wilted lettuce salads. YUM. I have 2 basil plants and both are doing great. Today I am going to make some fresh pesto. We also have been getting use out of our mint plant making some yummy mojitos. Ahh... why can't summer last all year.

Fruit mania - yesterday we went to Olsen Farms to pick fruit and well we got a little carried away. We picked 27 pounds of fruit all together. A combination of mostly blueberries and cherries and a few raspberries. We gave some to family/friends and I have been freezing alot too. I pitted a huge batch of cherries last night to freeze and yesterday we had fresh blueberry muffins for breakfast which were a huge hit with the boys.

Summer fun..

We have had lots of fun already this summer, visits from my family from Wyoming and Kevin's Mom and family from Roseburg too. We have gone strawberry picking 2 times and the boys loved it. On the 4th of July we went to the Riverfront Park and watched the fireworks - we stayed up waaaayy past bedtime (they didn't get over until like 11:00) and we all had soo much fun. Carter seemed really impressed and said "mom I don't remember ever seeing fireworks like this before". Still to come this summer, Kevin and I are going to see Jack Johnson (can't wait) we are going camping for a week and then to an air show in August as well. I love having so many hours of daylight (and it is warm to boot) to spend with my family.

Garden..

My garden is doing good, it is my very favorite place to hang out right now. This picture is from my garden swing that I just moved this year to the edge of the garden and I love it. The boys and I sit out there all the time or I sit there when they are playing outside sometimes, or they sit there and watch me weed. Anyhow it is very relaxing.

Our house is coming right along. We have finished one side and worked out all the kinks so now it should go up alot faster. With just Kevin and I doing it all I think we have made good progress. One of Kevin's friends is going to help him with it on Saturday evening too so they should be able to get some done then... We still need to decide what color to paint.

We had some relatives in town so we went to see the Volcanoes play a little baseball. Fun times were had by all especially the boys. Carter got to go out onto the field and sing "Take me out to the ball game" with some other kids.

New pendants..

I just got these today in the mail and I love them. I ordered them from Etsy (http://www.etsy.com/). It is an online store for homemade goodies of all kinds, arts, crafts, etc. These pendants are made from scrabble tiles. So cool. I ordered 2 and got one free. They are soo reasonable too, only like $6.00 each and they have lots of different styles. Here is the link for these specifically. http://www.homestudio.etsy.com/

New siding, etc, etc.

We are in the process of re-siding our house and painting (obviously) and adding some new cedar shake trim. I am soo excited. Here is a picture of our house before (we are taking out all the brick in front too) and then one from today which was demo day 1.

Kevin's younger brothers both came over this morning and I took the boys over to Grandma's house and we went at it. We got all the siding off, and I made about 100 wheelbarrow trips into the big dumpster. We have the guys coming over again tomorrow to finish the cleanup and ripping out the deck out back. We found that we have some termite damage that we have to look into. Hopefully nothing that will cost us too much... i hate those unexpected things that really hurt the wallet, like when your car breaks down, or something like this happens. Anyhow, of course I will be posting about the house when it is finished.. in a week or two.

I heart my new wall art..

I just got this little piece of wall art yesterday.. is that what it is called? I think so. Anyhow, I just love it. I picked it up at JoAnn Fabric store of all places. I saw it a couple days before and it was 50 percent off and I have been thinking about it since then so I had to go back and get it yesterday. I just love it. I found the perfect spot for it right beside/behind our dining room table. I think it looks good with our wall color which is a sage green.

Gavin is 2...

My Gavin turned 2 on Wednesday. I still can't believe his is 2 already, it has flown by. On Monday we went to the zoo for his birthday (because the weather was supposed to be nicer, it was still cold but it didn't rain!). We also went to the Rose Festival going on in downtown Portland and the boys got to ride some fun rides - Gavin's first time for that. We also got to see and go aboard a couple of pirate ships that are docked there, one was even used in making Pirates of the Caribbean. It was a fun day, we were all soo tired when we got home.

My garden is coming right along, if we would ever get some sunshine here that would help.. But everything seems to be growing and not dying. This way I don't have to water is one way to look at it I guess, but the soil is so wet I can't weed very good and they are starting to take over.

Silver Creek Falls..

Kevin had odd days off this week (Tues, Wed & Thurs.) so we got alot of stuff done around the house, mostly in the yard and garden, and then yesterday we went up to Silver Creek Falls. We had not been there yet this year and it is one of our favorite spots. We are not able to walk very far right now with both of the boys but we walked down to the South Falls and on the trail behind it and then back up and then we went to the Lodge for hot chocolate and to sit by the fire.. That was really nice. Then we drove to the North falls and hiked to see it and the Upper North Falls. It was a really fun day and the boys were both wore out from the walk (Gavin got carried some of the way, but he did really good).

Gavin turns 2 next week! We are going to go to the zoo on his birthday and then maybe check out the Rose Festival stuff going on downtown. There are some really cool ships that I think they would love to see, one that was in Pirates of the Caribbean.

Carter is 4!

Carter turned 4 last Saturday.. I can't believe he is is already 4, nonethless he had a great birthday with a little party at Chuck-E-Cheese, and then family over for cake and the unveiling of his big present. All the grandparents and us went in on this little truck for him. He was soo excited to open up the shed and see it there. He said "oh, there is one of those little trucks in here" and kept asking whose it was. Gavin loves to ride along and the truck has a little radio which they turn on and Gavin bobs his head to the music. Too funny!